Tougher Than She Looks
by foxyrules
Summary: Bulma is taken hostage by the new RR army. Who will save her, or will she save herself? Takes place during the 3 year gap. An interesting story of how they got together. Currently rated M for violence and language. Maybe Lemons in later chapters. My First Fan Fiction, Enjoy.
1. Frozen

A/N: I do not own DBZ or any of its characters. This is an original story by me. Please enjoy.

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Vegeta was training in the Gravity Room when he heard a knock on the door. He knew who it would be, seeing that is was about time for lunch.

"Lunch is almost ready, just come in the house when you're finished."

He didn't care much for the bubbly blonde that was constantly trying to be nice to him, but he did like her cooking, so he would let her live. He had decided to stay at the Brief's compound, if only to train for the big battle with the androids, although he was not sure how much longer he would stay. The old man did give him everything he needed to train and the ditzy blonde was giving him all the food he could eat, and that woman. He didn't know if he really liked her or really hated her, sometimes it seemed like both.

She was the only person he ever met that didn't seem to be afraid of him, well not afraid and not completely clueless. She was the only one who would give him as hard a time as he gave her, but she was clever. He knew she wasn't strong, yet she never backed down from people who could do some real damage to her, and then on top of it, she would win most of her arguments. In a way he kind of respected her tenacity, he could see why she would be friends with fighters, no one else would have the balls or skills to go against her. But why was he thinking about her? and often, maybe it was time to move out.

It was strange staying in one place for so long. He was used to picking up and staying on the move; after his planet was destroyed he was determined not to get too attached to any of the places he visited. He was sure that he would leave soon.

He finished out his training routine and washed up. With a growl from his stomach he began his trek to the main house for lunch. But when he got there everyone was frozen and the TV was on, something seemed to be happening that had caused smoke to come out of some building.

"It seems that there has been an explosion in the Capsule Complex parking garage. We have no reports on number injured, but it is said that the garage was likely to have been empty for some remodeling. There are no reports as to whether this was some sort of accident or … This just in. There has been a group to come forward and claim responsibility for the explosion; they are calling themselves the Red Ribbon Army."

"Oh, no. I hope everyone is alright!" Mrs. Briefs was looking from the TV to her husband. "Hon. Do you think she is down there?" Dr. Briefs seemed to be in a state of shock, but his wife's question shook him out of it.

"No, I'm sure she is fine. It was only the garage. If she had any work over there it would be in the main building." Suddenly the phone rang. "See that's probably Bulma calling to let us know she's fine." Dr. Briefs picked up the phone. At this point Vegeta began to grab a few bites to eat while only slightly paying attention to the screen. "Hello. What? No I haven't seen this. Change the channel to 5."

Mrs. Briefs punched a few buttons on the remote, then shrieked, "Oh My God! It's Bulma!" Suddenly all of Vegeta's attention was now directed to the TV set. What they saw was Bulma in what looked like her office only she was tied to her chair with two uniformed men standing next to her with some rather large guns. She didn't look good. Her clothes were torn and bloody and her bottom lip was split as if she had been punched in the face.


	2. Calm and Collected

A/N:I do not own any DBZ. This is a rewind to events a little earlier, but at a different location. Enjoy!

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Meanwhile at the Capsule Complex (the downtown office complex for the Capsule Corporation).

Bulma had been having a bad day. Nothing seemed to be going right the alarm didn't go off, her coffee wasn't ready this morning, she couldn't find the clothes she had planned to wear for her big meetings, she was late for her meeting because the parking garage was closed, and all on top of a spectacular month which she had finally broken up with Yamcha. There really wasn't much to break off, she had just finally decided that she needed a change and that Yamcha had had plenty of time to get his act together, which meant that he was probably never going to grow up. She was just settling in and preparing for her next meeting with a charity group when a large boom was heard and the building began to shake.

"That's odd." Bulma quickly turned her computer to security mode to check and see if any of the labs or displays had been affected by the shaking. That's when she found that the boom had come from the parking garage. But she noticed something else that was strange. All of the security on the ground floor was gone. "They should always have at least one out there. Something is wrong." Bulma quickly typed in the evacuation code into the computer to alert all of the employees to get out of the building.

"Ms. Briefs, there seems to be something wrong, the evacuation alarm is .."

"I know. I activated it. I want you to get out and get anyone else out that you can, I will join you once I secure a few things in here. And if you see any strange people, follow protocol; just get down and out of sight."

"Yes Ma'am."

Bulma started to shut down different areas of the display labs that were already clear and was starting to run the security measures for the data she was keeping on her computer. That's when she heard the loud banging on the reception room door. She knew she was out of time, but she was on the 52nd floor. There was nowhere for her to go, so she just sat back in her chair, ready for what was about to come through that door.

"Welcome to Capsule Corp., how may I help you?" Bulma was determined to stay cool and calm. Her main concern was the workers in her building having a chance to get out safely, and she knew the more she talked the more time they would have.

"Yeah, you can help us, by shutting the fuck up!" One of the smaller henchmen with one of the bigger guns shouted at her.

"Now, now, boys, we don't want to be rude. Ms. Briefs is the owner of this establishment, and she seems more than courteous." A rather handsome man walked into the office, he was wearing a generals uniform with the, oh, so familiar, red ribbon army insignia on his chest. "You see, Bulma, I can call you Bulma can't I?"

"It's Dr. Briefs."

"Oh, I see you want to be formal, that's fine. Dr. Briefs, I am General Green. I have a mission that I am on and I wanted to see if you would be a peach and help me carry it out." Bulma just stared back at him. "Well, we are looking for two things that you have that we want. Money, and some new technology for our efforts."

"What kind of technology and what kind of efforts? You see many people ask the Capsule Corporation for those things. There is even a form that you can fill out. We like to give away money to many projects. What's it for starving children, animals, perhaps you would like us to plant a few trees for energy conservation."

"No, I don't think you understand. Our efforts are less humanitarian than your usual clients." He was getting closer to her now, and his henchmen followed. "You seem to be a nice girl. All we want from you is a short PSA and a few computer chips." Bulma stood before they had a chance to hover over her.

"I'm afraid that all TV spots and interviews have to be scheduled through my secretary." He was starting to lose his patience. He obviously didn't know that Bulma had faced the RR army before, and he really didn't know that if he put her on TV she was sure that one of the Z fighters would come and save her. But she didn't want to look too eager; besides, she liked pissing off macho men who think that they are smarter or stronger than she was.

Suddenly, the henchman who had told her to shut up before slapped her right in the face. She was dazed, but not seriously hurt. "You see I am a reasonable man, but my associates don't have the control that I do."

"Perhaps they need shorter leashes." Another slap. The general raised his hand to stop any more hits from his men.

"Nothing would make me happier then to see you walk out of here alive, but I'm afraid that we will need to make you pretty for the cameras, or no one will take us seriously." Then he snapped his fingers and two of his men attempted to grab her arms, but being around fighters most of her life she had picked up a few things. She used their momentum to collide them into each other as they crashed into the book cases; she moved her chair between her and the mouthy one with the big gun and grabbed some pepper spray she had put on her desk. While she was looking to make an opening another tall man came at her and she use her spray, but he didn't seem to know it. That's when he got her with a punch right in the mouth and then darkness.


	3. A message of Genius

Bulma awoke to find herself tied to her chair and her face was throbbing. She could tell that they didn't stop at one punch, and she could feel what would probably be a black eye. _'Great piss them off, that'll be fun. What was I thinking?'_ Then Bulma turned her attention to her surroundings, there were about 8 uniformed men in the room, but two were at her side and the general seemed to have stepped out. She heard some of the men talking.

"You know she looks familiar." One crocodile headed man said. _'Oh shit! He knows!"_

"You idiot, of course she looks familiar, she's freakin' Bulma Briefs! Her picture is always on the news or in some magazine."

"Oh, Yeah. Hey I wonder if it's true that she has little green aliens in her back yard?"

"Don't be stupid! You can't possibly believe those crazy gossip magazines. Just keep your mouth shut and wait for orders."

_'Whew! That was close. I guess leaking the story to the rattiest gossip rag in town prevented everyone from believing in the Nameks.'_ Green walked in the room and everyone stood at attention, well except for Bulma of course.

"Men we are going to start the broadcast in 2 minutes. Ah, I see that our guest star is awake. I hope that you can still see well because I have a short statement for you to read." Some of the soldiers were setting up a camera and preparing to broadcast, while another shoved a statement into her face.

"You will read this on camera, just like it says on the paper, and don't forget to smile." The camera crew finished setting up and they were signaling that they were ready. Then another man at her computer patched them through to one of the news stations. One of the monitors displayed the news feed. She heard the announcer set up the situation.

"It appears now that members of the once defunct Red Ribbon Army have stormed the Capsule Corporation Complex and appear to have Dr. Bulma Briefs as a hostage. " The solder on her left tapped her with the end of his gun to get her to start talking.

"My name is Dr. Bulma Briefs, president and CEO of Capsule Corporation. I have been taken by the…," _'are they serious'_ "Glorious Red Ribbon Army."

She rolled her eyes, which of course resulted in a gun shoved to her head and a command to, "Just read what's there." Now, Bulma was not really a glutton for punishment, but the writing was really bad.

"I am authorizing payment for my ransom in the amount of …I can't read that."

"Ten Thousand Million Zeni." _'Damn they think we'd pay that?' _(A/N:That's about $100,000,000,000 US)

"Ten thousand million zeni, and safe passage for my captors to …ar-ca-pe-so?" There was that gun again, this time it didn't move back. "Hey, I didn't write it!" Then Green decided he would stand up and make the demands.

As General Green was spouting out his demands, Yamcha and Krillin had already made their way to the Briefs' home trying to find out what should be done. At the first nudge of the gun to her baby's head Mrs. Briefs collapsed in terror. Vegeta was fuming. _'What the fuck! She is supposed to be here and fix my shit! How is she going to do that, if she gets herself killed.'_ He wanted to fly in there and bash all their heads in, _'Stupid humans.'_ But everyone was concerned that if they tried to get to her, would she get killed first.

"Do you have a map of the building? Maybe we can find a way in, or figure out where she is?"

"Yes, Krillin, that's good. I have one on my computer in my lab." Yamcha was getting Mrs. Briefs onto the couch while all the others went to Dr. Briefs' lab that he used at home. He began to pull up the plans for the building, while Krillin turned on one of the TVs to keep watching the live feed. That General guy was still talking and Bulma was still in the background with two guns to her head. "Here are the plans. Look, it's a message from Bulma, it looks like she sent it before they got to her."

**Hey Dad,**

** Something is about to happen. I moved the CC Complex** **controls over to your lab.**

** The encryption key is from the standard code. I hear them coming. **

** Love You**

** B**

"What does that mean?" Krillin moved closer to Dr. Briefs.

"Well it means that we can now see all of the cameras and video and we have control over the automated locks and lock down sequences." Dr. Briefs began typing in the code sequence to unlock the system.

"Wow. I guess Bulma really is a genius!" That idiot Scarface stepped into the room with that stupid grin on his face. Vegeta was studying the 3D model of the building on the hologram computer memorizing the hallways and rooms.

Krillin noticed where Vegeta's attention was and asked, "Where is Bulma now?"

"Her office on the 52nd floor. Here." Yamcha pointed to one of the rooms. "I recognize the background."

Vegeta was looking at all the entry points. This is just a mission, an extraction. He had done this dozens of times. Freeza often wanted him to get something out safe before they ended a planet, when negotiations went south or he just did care to ask for what he wanted. The only difference was, this time he couldn't blow the facility to kingdom come or just destroy the planet when he was through. He had to be more careful. His thoughts were interrupted by Krillin.

"Hey, guys, they cut the feed."

"I've got our own feed now." Dr. Briefs now had complete access to all the building controls they could see Bulma, the General, and all the soldiers left with her. It also looked like there were more soldiers throughout the building. Yamcha was the first to break the silence.

"Wow, there's a lot more of them than we thought. I wonder what they want?"

"We don't have time to find out. The more time she is with them, the more likely that she'll die." Vegeta grabs some of the communicators that he saw Bulma using before, when she would have to work on the gravity room but still stay in touch with the rest of the lab. "Turn this on and guide me through the building."

"That's a good idea, Vegeta!" Vegeta rolled his eyes. _'Of course it was a good idea, how did someone so smart have such idiot friends?'_ Yamcha and Krillin both took a communicator set as Vegeta flew out of the house and started for the rising smoke. The other two fighters followed closely behind him. Leaving Dr. Briefs at the helm to guide them through the maze.


End file.
